How to Scan Old Photos: A Practical 2026 Guide
Scan old family photos the right way — DPI settings, file formats, flatbed vs phone apps, handling fragile prints, and what to do with the scans afterward.
How to Scan Old Photos: A Practical 2026 Guide
Scanning is the step that decides how good every later edit can be — restoration, upscaling, and colorization are all capped by the quality of your scan. Get it right once and you have an archival master you'll never have to redo. The short version: scan prints at 600 DPI, save a TIFF master, handle fragile photos as little as possible, and make JPEG copies for sharing. Here's the full workflow.
Flatbed scanner vs your phone
Both work; they're good at different things.
A flatbed scanner presses the print flat under even, consistent light and captures real resolution — it's the right tool for anything you're archiving or planning to enlarge. A phone camera is faster and the only option for prints you can't remove from an album, but it fights glare, uneven light, and slight warping. If the photo matters and it's loose, use a flatbed. If you're digitizing a shoebox of snapshots to share, a phone (or a phone scanning app that flattens perspective) is a reasonable trade.
The Library of Congress's guide to scanning personal collections is the most trustworthy free reference for the fundamentals — cleaning the original, choosing settings, and keeping multiple backups.
The settings that matter
Resolution: 600 DPI for prints. This is the archival sweet spot. The Library of Congress guide recommends 400–600 DPI for any photo you intend to enlarge to 8×10 or larger, and notes that going much above 600 is usually unnecessary for a standard print. 600 also gives restoration extra detail to work with, which always helps. 300 DPI is enough only if you just want to view and share on screen. Slides and negatives are much smaller originals, so they need far more — scan those at 1500–2000+ DPI.
DPI can't add detail that isn't there
Higher DPI captures more of what the print actually holds — it doesn't invent sharpness. A soft, faded, or grainy original scanned at 1200 DPI is just a bigger file of the same softness. Scan at 600, then recover detail in editing rather than expecting the scanner to do it.
Format: TIFF (or PNG) for the master. Save the scan uncompressed so it loses nothing over time, then export JPEGs from that master for email, prints, and social. If JPEG is your only copy, every edit-and-save cycle quietly degrades it — fine for a snapshot, wrong for a family archive.
Color: scan in color even for black-and-white prints. A color scan captures the paper's tone, aging, and subtle tints that a grayscale scan throws away — and you'll want that information if you later colorize.
Handling fragile prints
Damage during scanning is permanent, so slow down:
- Clean the glass and the print gently. A microfiber cloth or a soft blower clears dust that would otherwise show up as spots. Don't rub a cracked or flaking print.
- Hold prints by the edges, ideally with clean cotton gloves — fingerprints leave oils that attract dust and degrade emulsion over time.
- Don't force a stuck photo. A brittle print glued into an album will tear before it lets go. Photograph it in place instead, or scan the album page through a sleeve that lifts cleanly.
- Scan torn pieces together. Lay fragments in position on the glass and scan them as one image — reassembly is far easier digitally than physically.
What to do with the scans
A clean scan is the input the rest of the workflow needs:
- Repair damage first. Scratches, stains, and tears confuse later steps, so fix them on the master. Our photo restoration guide covers the order — repair, then enhance, then colorize.
- Upscale if the print was small. Group shots where each face is only a few hundred pixels benefit most; photo upscaling rebuilds resolution so faces survive being printed or displayed large.
- Sort out blur vs. low resolution. They look similar but need different fixes — our guide to fixing blurry photos explains which is which before you spend time on the wrong one.
Keep the originals
Digitizing is insurance, not a reason to throw prints away. Scans can be lost, formats drift, and the physical photo is the only true original. Store the prints flat, out of light and humidity, after you scan them.
FAQ
What DPI? 600 for prints you'll archive or enlarge; 300 only for quick sharing; 1500–2000+ for slides and negatives.
Scan or photograph? A flatbed for archiving; a phone for speed or album-bound prints, shot in flat light with no flash.
Which format? A TIFF or PNG master, with JPEG copies made from it for sharing.
Photo stuck in an album? Don't force it — photograph it in place or scan the page through a clean sleeve.